Baba says, ‘BapDada has the pure hope that all of you children become constantly powerful like the Father’ and not be limited by your capacity.

All of us want to become equal to BapDada, we want to give the return for His love, for His sustenance by revealing Him through our vision, face and behavior. We want to become part of the rosary of victory and become garlanded around the neck of the Father. So I make this promise to BapDada from my heart and with love and yet, when it comes to show the practical proof, I often fall short.

It is one thing to make a promise and a different thing to make a firm pledge, says Baba. The sign of a firm pledge is that I may die but I cannot break my pledge. No matter what the circumstances are, they are external. When I have made a firm pledge, external things cannot make the internal stage of the self fluctuate. At any time, in any situation, I cannot be defeated because I have made the pledge to become the garland around the neck of BapDada. When I move forward with this kind of determination, then I become part of the rosary of victory.

In reality, however, Baba says, when Maya takes a shot at making your promise weak, you let her win. When problems or circumstances come, instead of solving that, you give excuses: “It wasn’t like that, it was like this.” “If it hadn’t happened in this way, it would be like that.” “This one said this; this one did this.” “The circumstances were such; the situation was like that.” You offer many ‘if’s and ‘but’s and ‘like this’ and ‘like that’, says Baba, this is the language of making excuses. And the language of a firm pledge is, “Whether it is like this or like that, I have to become like the father.” “I have to become.” “I don’t need to wait for others to be like this first, I have to become”. It shouldn’t be: “I will only be good if others do this.” “Only if others give co-operation will I then become complete; only then will I become perfect.”. Instead of receiving in that way, become master bestowers and give co-operation, love and sympathy, teaches Baba. Remember, He says, that the very meaning of Brahmin life is: To give is to receive. The receiving is merged in the giving. This is why the basis of a firm pledge is to see the self, to change the self and to maintain your self-respect: the self-respect is being a master bestower.

No matter how big or how good any machinery might be, even if one little screw is loose, it makes the whole machine useless. Similarly, in order to fulfill your promise, you make very good plans and you make a lot of effort. However, the screw that makes your plans and effort weak is carelessness– the excuses and reasons. Something else you do, Baba points out, is look at others instead of BapDada: “Even the seniors do this. We are the younger ones.” So the vision of seeing weaknesses deceives you. Because of this, you are not able to put the promise into a practical form. Tighten these screws and become victorious, He says.

Make all these three the same: to understand, to have the wish to do something, and to actually do it. To make all three the same means to become like the father. If BapDada tells everyone to give this promise in writing, you would all do so in a second, Baba observes. It is easy to on a piece of paper but now, says Baba, write on your forehead with the ink of determination. Even if you die, you must not break your pledge. Only such determination will easily make you the same as the father.

To be equal to the Father is to be the child, the heir. And the thing that gets in the way of my becoming this are these reasons and excuses. When I get stuck on the ‘if’s and ‘but’s, I can only get as far as being a co-operative soul but not an heir child. A co-operative soul will assist in the Father’s task according to their capacity, that is, if their conditions are met- ‘if this happens, if they change, if…’ These excuses prevent them from going all the way, it limits them. But an heir child does not care about the situations or circumstances. Why? because for me, my Father’s task is my task. I am the owner of the Father’s shop and equally responsible for it’s success, it’s mine! So whatever the reason, I find a solution, I figure out a way to make things work. My personal name, fame, glory is not my goal, rather, I want to make the Father’s task, the family business, so to speak, successful. So if my brother or sister has a skill that helps, I invite them to apply it. It isn’t about ‘why her, not me’, ‘how come he is on stage, not me’ etc. In fact, that isn’t even relevant, this is the Father’s family, my family, our common, collective task. She does, he does, I do…it’s the same thing, the goal is to get the Father’s task accomplished, to glorify His name. I become naturally pliable and moldable, I accommodate, I transform, I unite. When I change, I inspire change, and the world changes. That is the Father’s task and so it is also mine. Nothing else matters.